Fun things to do near Zurich

July 28, 2015 9:49 AM

I have two days to kill time starting either in Lugano or Zurich. Where should I go?

If Italy, some place with amazing food would be great. Otherwise I am open to options. Train travel preferred but I can take a flight that is less than two hours. Also not looking to be somewhere terribly hot (given it'll be in August) or too boring (i.e. no people).

posted by special-k to Travel & Transportation around Zurich, Switzerland (6 answers total)

Lugano is a short train ride from Milano, a grand city where you can find great food, great art (such as "The Last Supper"), great architecture (like the Duomo) and, this year, a World's Fair.

Zurich has some nice things to visit itself, such as the Fraumunster, with its Chagall windows, and the Jung Institute.

If I were in in your shoes, I'd head to Liechtenstein just to say I'd been there, but that's just me. I really don't know what's there.
posted by ubiquity at 10:32 AM on July 28, 2015 [1 favorite]

Beware that Zurich is very very expensive.
posted by monologish at 12:30 PM on July 28, 2015 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Beware that Zurich is very very expensive.

I'm aware, which is why I'm looking for a spot to get away after I finish some work there.
posted by special-k at 12:47 PM on July 28, 2015

Sent you a me mail.
posted by jazh at 1:28 PM on July 28, 2015

When I was in Zurich a couple of years ago, my wife and I went on a hike and LOVED it. It's a beautiful country. Uetliberg is the typical Zurich tourist hike, easy to get to and a reasonable difficulty. We did Seebodenalp instead -- harder to get to, way way more strenuous, but spectacular and we got to take a cable car back down the mountain.

Switzerland has a pretty good hiking search website that you can poke through, and the signage on the trails (if Seebodenalp is any indication) is decent, too.
posted by Plutor at 5:52 PM on July 28, 2015 [2 favorites]

Lucerne is only 45 minutes by train from Zurich and is incredibly beautiful and walkable.
posted by blessedlyndie at 10:20 PM on July 28, 2015 [2 favorites]